Damian Thompson is Editor of Telegraph Blogs and a columnist for the Daily Telegraph. He was once described by The Church Times as a "blood-crazed ferret". He is on Twitter as HolySmoke. His latest book is The Fix: How addiction is taking over your world. He also writes about classical music for The Spectator.

Now that Bishop Williamson has been punished and silenced, Pope Benedict XVI's grand design for the reunion of orthodox Catholic Christianity is going according to plan. Cardinal Castrillon, head of Ecclesia Dei, has just been quoted as saying that Bishop Fellay, head of the SSPX, recognises the Second Vatican Council. Amazing. (Hat-tip: the great Father Z.)

So, in the course of one day, we learn that a personal prelature is on offer to hundreds of thousands of members of the Traditional Anglican Communion, and that the leader of the SSPX, which in the past has portrayed Vatican II as the work of Satan, now accepts the broad thrust of the Council. (One curious detail: it seems possible that the Vatican didn't know that Richard Williamson was a gibbering Holocaust denier until after the decision to lift the excommunications had been taken. Not very clever, though I personally couldn't care less what "communities minister" Sadiq Khan has to say on the subject.)

Admittedly, there are many obstacles to be overcome, some arising from the instability of the SSPX and the TAC, and others deliberately strewn in the path of the Holy Father by cardinals and bis